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Cheers and Jeers

One of my favorite sections in my local newspaper is called Cheers and Jeers. What is seen in this section is letters from readers where the contributor will either tell of some great event that they have experienced or applaud the actions of someone else. Of course, the Jeers would be the opposite of that. The readers sometimes complain about something that personally happened to them or just a universal distaste of someone or something. My personal favorites are definitely the jeers because they are so much more entertaining. Some fun examples of these are jeers where the letter writer had something stolen and they are jeering whoever took their possession. My thought is that I doubt that this thief is picking up the local paper and reading this and feeling shame about what they did. There are also the jeers that remind me of the comment cards I used to get at my former retail job. The contributor will write about how they were wronged by a certain business. What makes me chuckle is that sometimes the person will just make a generic reference to the business. For example, the cashier at the northside Mexican restaurant was rude. How is this accomplishing anything besides just the person venting. The actual restaurant in question will never know it’s them.I decided this was too much fun not to try some of this myself. My first topic is the recent events of the tragic passing of Whitney Houston. My cheer goes to Grammy host LL Cool J who decided to start the telecast with a public prayer for Houston and her family. First it was very heartfelt, but also how often does any form of prayer end up in pop culture anymore. My jeer goes to my native state of New Jersey for stating that will they fly the American and state flags at half mast for Ms. Houston. I’m not saying the New Jersey native shouldn’t get some accolades for her music career but to honor her death any more special then fallen soldiers, firefighters or police officers is not right.Now in the world of politics, we are now enduring a presidential election season. Unfortunately, this season lasts for what seems like years. I have to cheer all the citizens that get involved in campaigns and actually get out and vote. When you consider that only half of the people that register to vote actually vote, then anything that gets people involved in our democracy is a plus. Of course my jeer list on election campaigns is longer. Thankfully I will only touch on a few. My first jeer is the never ending use of negativism in campaigns. I would rather find out what a candidate will do to improve things not why his competitor is unworthy because he wears super hero pajamas. I know that this is a little crazy example but it’s truly not too far from the truth. My next biggest jeer is the amount of money spent on campaigns. Millions and millions of dollars are spent trying to get out the previously mentioned negative message. Couldn’t all this wasted money be used to help the economy somehow? Maybe lower the deficit or start a business. I have my own form of campaign reform that I may write about soon.Now can you see how much fun that was? I really think it is because every day we all have our own little cheers and jeers. Hopefully more cheers than jeers. This leads to my final cheers to you readers who have made it to the end of this column. If you made it this far to get your accolades then I truly appreciate you for reading my column.Michael Coleman is a resident of Fort Worth and a former resident of Sweetwater. Comments about this column may be e-mailed to editor@sweetwaterreporter.com or mpc20s@hotmail.com.